RT88 wrote:One of the great guys in racing - it is Jim Sheaffer in victory lane. Of you see Jim at the races stop by and say hi. You will hear some great racing stories. I never tire of Jim's stories.

I had the opportunity to talk with Jim at Latimore Fairgrounds this summer. What an interesting time! He and Joe Lingle were swapping some race stories. Also, there wasn't a part at the swap meet that Jim didn't what it was.

I sit with Jimmy most every Friday night. So here is a story for ya. Jimmy blew a motor on Friday and didn't have one to put in for Port other than a 327 sitting in the corner with a hole in the piston. Ok typical Jimmy, take it apart pipe plug the hole and machine it...put it back together. So happens Jiimy was leading at Port and not being caught. Paxton had a flat early and went to the back after a tire change. Paxton's words were his car was perfect that night..It also was the Boop's car with a Yenko big block against Jimmy's rigged back together 327. Lynn saw who was leading when he got to the front and said he almost felt bad taking the win from Jimmy. Seen this guy machine just about anything and make it work. Once while he was driving for Swamp they blew up and he put one together for the next night and I am not talking a bent valve blow up. Overnight he machined the block and built the motor, it was in the car racing the next night. Back in the day when guys really, really wanted to race, they pretty much did whatever they had to.

Jimmy can do it all. When I drove for Sandy and Jim, the car was fast most of the time, engines just didn't stay together too often. A sign of used up parts, put together with knowledge. Case in point. Jim had a coil front/torsion rear car that I nicknamed the 'pogo stick' cause it bounced its way around Port till Jimmy figured out how to make it work. After that I think we won 3 or 4 heats with pogo and a few top 10s as well. We were on the no budget plan, meaning you had to have money to have a budget. Hell a new tire for us only had a feature on it,LOL! We always had fun, and Jimmy never expected me to do anything the cars couldn't do. I never was upset with the effort from 'the Crew' either. It was fun beating some cars at times that had more in the trailer than Jimmy had on the car, and he did it just with his hands and head. If we would have had just a few dollars.....